Fading Tradition

You often don’t notice them as your ride by on modern Phnom Penh’s busy streets, but there are still quite a few old traditional wooden houses around. Often a shopfront has been added to turn what used to be just a family house into a family business so that from the street only a concrete facade is visible. As the city develops, though, these house are doomed.

A landscaping business almost hides this old house near the Maryknoll office
In the old traditional style, each room has its own peaked roof.
Here is a concrete room added to the front of the wooden house to create a business.
This used to be a neighborhood of wooden houses, but now all the adjoining traditional houses have become multistory apartment blocks.
How long will this little wooden house last on this corner?

Trouble mounting up

Recently the rubbish collectors went on strike in Phnom Penh and the resulting mounds of trash are indicative that it was a long work stoppage. The problem was compounded by the fact that in Phnom Penh people just use plastic bags for throwing out trash, and there are no ordinances or rules for putting out garbage so the streets become the natural receptacles.

Still Going Strong

This old man collecting rubbish to recycle has been part of the Phnom Penh street scene ever since I arrived. In those twenty years, he has always dressed the same: shorts, flip-flops, and a hat. Never a shirt. I mean literally…NEVER a shirt. He must get something out of his endeavors because he keeps collecting.

Flood damage

The recent flooding–still continuing–has caused a lot of inconvenience to people forced to move, and disruption to people going to work and school. It has also caused a lot of physical damage to the streets. The Cambodians have never actually caught on how to properly pave a road–the usual 1/8th inch of asphalt over gravel doesn’t work so well–and the repeated submersion in water has taken its toll, with many streets now well potholed.